Confirmations complete filibuster deal

The Senate is racing to confirm as many of President Barack Obama’s nominees as it can before adjourning for a monthlong recess.

On Tuesday, the chamber confirmed five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, the final pieces of a bipartisan deal to avert a historic rules change via the filibuster nuclear option earlier this month. The successful round of votes on board members marks the first time the NLRB has had five Senate-confirmed members in a decade, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

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Whether further bipartisan vibes from avoiding a rules change are lingering in the Senate will be tested this week as the chamber considers Todd Jones’s nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Samantha Power’s selection as ambassador to the United Nations. Jones’s nomination is thought by Democrats to be the shakiest and is scheduled for a procedural vote Wednesday morning.

There have been open questions about whether Jones can reach the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold. But Democratic aides on Tuesday were mostly confident that Jones will advance despite Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) trying to whip up opposition among Republicans. Grassley has long been concerned with an ongoing investigation into whether Jones retaliated against whistle-blowers, and said Tuesday he is telling his caucus “that it’s bad to establish precedents that you have ongoing investigations that you should move ahead.”

One Democratic aide closely following the nomination predicted Jones could accrue as many as 70 votes, given that the National Rifle Association is not encouraging Republicans to oppose Jones. And Sandy Hook Promise, a group created in the wake of last year’s shootings in Newtown, Conn., has written all senators’ offices to encourage support for the ATF director. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday that he would vote to break the filibuster and believed there are enough like-minded Republicans to confirm Jones.

Asked Tuesday whether he had the votes, Reid would only say: “We’ll find out.”

The Senate has never confirmed a director to the ATF since the position necessitated Senate approval in 2006, partially because of NRA opposition.

Republicans have already delayed — if not derailed — one of Obama’s picks. Reid said that Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), nominated to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will have to wait until September because “there’s only so much we can do” this week.

Republicans are opposing Watt because they see him as a political pick rather than someone steeped in the minutiae of housing regulations.

Watt, meeting with senators this week, told POLITICO that GOP opposition thus far has been “unfair” but declined to elaborate, other than to say he’s “hopeful” he will eventually be confirmed.

A September vote on Watt would come just as the Senate’s partisan divisions resurface over an impasse on government spending levels that has sparked talk of an October shutdown. But as part of a deal between Reid and Republicans, the NLRB picks didn’t have to face that toxic atmosphere. Neither did FBI Director James Comey, who was confirmed nearly unanimously Monday after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) grudgingly lifted his hold.

As agreed to several weeks ago, groups of Republicans joined with Democrats to help the NLRB nominees clear procedural votes on Tuesday, though Republicans were nearly united in opposition to labor-backed NLRB picks Kent Hirozawa and Nancy Schiffer during their final confirmation tallies. In addition to Hirozawa, the chief counsel to the NLRB, and Schiffer, a former AFL-CIO counsel, the Senate also confirmed NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and GOP-backed NLRB nominees Harry Johnson and Philip Miscimarra.

Schiffer and Hirozawa were selected by the White House in consultation with top labor leaders to replace a pair of recess-appointed NLRB nominees that circuit courts declared unconstitutional. In turn, Reid did not pursue changing the Senate rules via the nuclear option to carve an easier path for President Barack Obama’s nominees.

But Republicans won a key concession by resisting any attempt to extend new terms to Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, pending a fall hearing of their appointments’ constitutionality at the Supreme Court. Because the board would cease to function in late August due to expiring terms, Democrats then insisted on a fully operational NLRB through Obama’s presidency as part of the deal to avert the rules change.